A Venetian Day
WHEN we open our blinds in the early morning a gray fog envelops all Venice. We can just see the gondoliers at the boat landing beneath us busily polishing the steel prows and the brass sea horses that brighten their craft.

The Italian Renaissance
Thus we had opportunity to review the causes of the wonderful overturn of the old systems which we now call the Renaissance of architecture. We saw and studied the work done in those fruitful days by Brunelleschi, Alberti, Bramante, Peruzzi, and the other architects of that great epoch.

Rural England
Although we were two architects traveling with sketch book and camera, and in spite of all that art and human life have done in England to interest just such travelers, it was nature and her handiwork that first claimed our notice and our intense enthusiasm.

French And English Churches
ALTHOUGH the mediŠval churches of France and England were built by men of the same faith and for the same Catholic ritual; although England was long under a French domination and a large part of France was for one or two hundred years occupied by and ruled over by Englishmen.

On The Design Of Houses
But, even in a little house, what shall be done with the inevitable detail of the stairs, the mantels, the porches, and the furniture.

By The Sea
NEITHER forest nor stream, neither mountain nor lake, can satisfy the lover of the sea. If the sough of the breeze through wind-swept woods is sweet to him, it is because he hears in it the murmur of the ocean.

The Chouans (1829)
The Chouans were the French royalists of Maine and Brittany who revolted against the French conventions in 1792. Chouan signifies an owl, and may have been a nickname of Jean Cottereau, who led the insurgents, or perhaps the hoot of an owl was used to summon the men to their rendezvous.

The Magic Skin (1831)
This is one of the best known of Balzac's novels. He worked very hard over it, and his hopes of its success were realized. It was asserted that Ernst T. W. Hoffman, the German novelist, was his model, but Balzac denied it.

A Woman Of Thirty (1832)
In 1842, Balzac changed the names of the individuals, so that all the adventures should be given to the same set of characters. One heroine, Julie d'Aiglemont, links the stories.

Louis Lampert (1832)
This work, in which Balzac said he endeavored to strive with Goethe and Byron, with Faust and Manfred, was written and published in 1832. It first appeared in a book called Nouveaux Contes Philosophiques, and in 1833 was issued alone as Histoire Intellectuelle de Louis Lambert.

The Country Doctor (1833)
This study belongs to the Scenes of Country Life, which Balzac did not live to finish. He wrote: "I had to delineate certain exceptional live, which comprehend the interests of many persons, or of everybody, and are in a degree outside the general law.

Eugenie Grandet (1834)
Perhaps because this story touches the mark more closely than any of the rest of Balzac's books, it has been more enthusiastically admired and widely read than those others, with the single exception of Pere Goriot.

Pere Goriot (1835)
According to Balzac's own authority, he wrote the novel in twenty-five days. Pere Goriot has been called the French King Lear; but it has no Cordelia to soften the sorrows of the pathetic old man.

Seraphita (1835)
Seraphita first appeared in Le Livre Mystique, with Louis Lambert and Les Proscrits
(Paris, 1835). A portion of it had already been published in the Revue de Paris in 1834. In 1840 it appeared in Le Livre des Douleurs; in 1842 it was republished with Louis Lambert.

The Lilly Of The Valley (1836)
Among his own novels this was one of Balzac's favorites. In 1835 he wrote to Madame Hanska: I am writing a great and beautiful work, entitled Le Lys dens la Vallee, the heroine of which is to represent terrestrial perfection as Seraphita is to represent celestial perfection.

Lost Illusions (1837)
Balzac particularly admired Eve. He wrote to Madame Hanska: In Illusions Perdues there is a young girl named Eve who is to my eyes the most ravishing creation that I have made. Illusions Perdues was dedicated to Victor Hugo.

Cesar Birotteau (1838)
CESAR BIROTTEAU, son of Jacques Birotteau, a peasant of the environs of Chinon, and of the chambermaid of a lady whose vines he tended, went on foot to Paris, when fourteen years old, to seek his fortune.

Beatrix (1839)
In this novel Balzac presents thinly disguised character studies of certain of his famous contemporaries.

A Distinguished Provincial At Paris (1839)
This work originally formed the second part of Illusions Perdues (Lost Illusions), and two chapters first appeared in the Estafette, in 1839. It is included in the Scenes de la Vie de Province.

Ursule Mirouet (1841)
Balzac considered this novel a most beautiful piece of work. He dedicated it to his niece, saying: You young girls are a public to be dreaded; you ought never to be suffered to read any book less pure than your own pure souls.

Catherine De'Medici (1841)
This historical romance consists of three separate stories of different lengths, entirely independent of one another. The first part, Le Martyr Calviniste, was the last of the three in regard to date of publication.

A Bachelor's Establishment (1843)
One part of this book appeared as Les Deux Freres in La Presse, in 1841; and another in the same paper, in 1842, as Un Menage de Garcon en Province. Then these were issued in book form in 1843.

A Start In Life (1844)
The next year, with fourteen chapters suppressed, it entered the Scenes de la Vie Privee in the Comedie Humaine. Balzac wrote to Madame de Surville that it was one of the pearls of his crown.

Modeste Mignon (1844)
This story was. first printed in the Journal des Debats, in three numbers. It appears, from a long letter written early in that year, to Madame Hanska, l'Etrangere, to whom the story is dedicated, that the central idea of it was hers, rather than Balzac's.

Cousin Bette (1846)
Cousin Bette, written by Balzac toward the end of his career, was published in The Constitutionnel, in instalments, between October 8 and December 3, 1846, and was produced to get money to pay off his indebtedness.

Cousins Pons (1847)
Balzac explicitly declares, in Cousin Pons, that the two taken conjunctively prove that character is the chief of all social forces.

The Member For Arcis (1854)
The only part that appeared in Balzac's life was The Election, which was published in L'Union Monarchique in 1847. The work was completed by Charles Rabou, who was chosen by Balzac to finish it and the second and third chapters first appeared in the Constitutionnel in 1853.

The Middle Classes (1854)
Balzac had been at work upon it a long time, frequently laying it aside for other things. It appears from his correspondence that it was very nearly finished at the time of his death, and all the principal scenes were sketched out, if not entirely finished, even to the last chapter.